Private Wi-Fi Address

Question

Created Jul ’20

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According to the WWDC video found here...

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10676

At 22:00 the discussion around Private Wi-Fi is addressed. From a traveller's perspective this could cause some headaches having to re-login to a hotel's wifi every day. For a short term stay this may be acceptable but for long term stays, a week, a month, this could be frustrating.

Therefore perhaps an additional switch that disables the 24 hour generation of the private address should also be included. Travellers very much appreciate the security around the mac randomness every time they connect to a new WIFI network. But they may not wish to have to deal with it every day. Therefore it shouldn't be an all or nothing thing. A switch to enable the feature as a whole and a second switch for the 24 hour feature.

Thoughts?

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Answer 1

Averix OP

Jul ’20

This feature will cause a lot of grief in the hospitality industry. Hotel Wi-Fi connection is just one thing that may rely on the MAC address for identifying a guest. Once the device's MAC address changes, anything that used an IP address or MAC address to identify a device will be broken. Door lock access, guest device for loyalty interactions, casting content to the hotel TV, casino membership, etc. This randomized address will force developers to store additional information about a guest's device in order to keep things functional and secure. I would rather not store other information or force a user to take additional steps (re-sign into Wi-Fi, scan a QR code, tap NFC, etc.) to keep them associated with the amenities available through their account/stay.

If the 24 hour refresh could be extended or optionally set to a value (1 day, 1 week, 1 month) by the user when joining a network, that would help alleviate a lot of the issues this new privacy feature will create.

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